Maple Bacon & Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

Do you guys love copycat recipes? I know I do!! You know, you go out to eat at a restaurant and eat something so great that you think, “I have to make that at home!!!”… then you spend some time searching the internet and/or coming up with your own versions. My hunt for a Ruby Tuesday’s biscuit recipe is what led me to come up with this delicious maple, bacon and cheddar buttermilk biscuit recipe!

Some copycat recipes turn out great and are spot on the money! Like my copycat Panera Bread Broccoli Cheddar Soup… oh man, it’s hot here in Ohio, and I still want that soup 🙂

Others, well, they turn out like this one… not really a copycat, but still delicious!! If you have a Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant near you, you know those biscuits they bring out while you’re waiting on your food? They’re so tasty, dare I even say better than Red Lobsters? Eeek! Once I tried them, I knew I was going to have to find a way to have them at home. Through my trials in the kitchen, I developed these biscuits, and they’re really good!

There are two ingredients in these biscuits that may surprise you… firstly…. maple syrup. It adds a hint of amazing sweetness. Secondly, bacon grease. Yep, you read that correctly. These biscuits won’t be endorsed by the American Heart Association any time soon! 😉 It’s not a lot of bacon grease, and it could probably be substituted for some shortening or even just more butter. But I just love the extra bacony (should be a word, seriously!) flavor that it adds!

These are a relatively low-maintenance biscuit to make… no rolling out the dough or using a biscuit cutter.

I let my food processor do the work of cutting in the fats and solids, but you could use a handheld pastry cutter if you’d like 🙂 Once you’ve combined all the ingredients except for the liquids, transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Make a well in the center and pour in your buttermilk, milk and syrup. Use a rubber spatula to stir it all together until it’s well combined, and is a sticky dough.

Use a large cookie/ice cream scoop to drop the biscuits onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Once they’re finished baking, mix up a seasoned melted butter mixture and brush it on top of the biscuits.

So soft, so fluffy, so light, so flavorful!!

Now these buttermilk biscuits are completely delicious as-is… but you want to know what makes them crazy good? A little drizzle of some honey or extra maple syrup! I know, I know… it’s a bit decadent… but c’mon, you’re already eating biscuits, go for it and add the drizzle 🙂

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Dice bacon and cook in a small skillet until crispy. Remove to a paper towel lined plate with a slotted spoon. Pour grease into a small bowl and place in the freezer to chill. Cube your butter into small pieces and place in the freezer as well.

In your food processor, add your flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and salt, and pulse to combine. Add chilled butter and bacon grease, and pulse until the fats are cut into the dry ingredients. Mixture will resemble wet fluffy sand with small pea-sized lumps.

Add in the shredded cheese and crisped bacon and pulse a few more times to combine.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl, make a well in the center, and add in buttermilk, maple syrup and milk. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon to combine. If the mixture is dry, add a splash more buttermilk. You want the dough to leave the sides of the bowl.

Use a 2-inch cookie scoop (or 1/4 cup measuring cup) to scoop out the dough and drop them onto the parchment lined baking sheet, with a few inches in between each biscuit.

Bake for about 15 minutes, turning the baking sheet around halfway through.

While biscuits are baking, melt your butter and stir in the parsley, garlic powder and salt. Once the biscuits are golden brown, remove them from the oven and brush with the butter mixture.

Cool biscuits on a cooling rack.

Notes

** If you'd prefer, you can use bacon that's already cooked, but you'll still need bacon grease, so I only recommend this method if you keep bacon grease in your refrigerator.

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Doubling should work out just fine, but I wouldn’t recommend making the dough beforehand. The baking powder will activate with the liquids and start working as soon as you mix the dough, so leaving it overnight means they probably wouldn’t rise very much the next day when baking. You can, however, go ahead and freeze your butter and bacon grease, measure out your cheese, cook and crumble your bacon, and combine all the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag. That way a lot of your prep is done, and these will come together in no time!

The maple flavour is VERY subtle, as in you can hardly taste it. And I used maple bacon which I would recommend using to add to the flavour. I also added chopped green onion into the dough because I had some that needed using up. Absolutely scrumptious!

Thank you Lindsey!! I bet your family loves that you make your own breads and rolls, homemade is awesome 🙂 I like to experiment in the kitchen, and have been getting more and more into making most things from scratch. I hope you and your family love these biscuits! 🙂

Ahhhh… yessss.. these look AMAZING!!!! I LOVE biscuits and I definitely can’t wait to try these! And honestly I used to save bacon grease because I heard that it’s an amazing secret ingredient stuff… I just never found a recipe to use it for until now, YEAH!!!! And… I recently bought REAL maple syrup too so I am ready to GO!

Thank youuuuuu Stephanie!! Bacon grease is the nectar of the gods lol… I use a little of it to saute chicken breasts in my skillet… it adds such a great flavor! Woohooo, you’re definitely all ready to make these! I hope you love them 😀

OK my mouth was watering.. Seriously!! Bacon grease is better than shortening. Butter is probably a little healthier. Whom am I kidding, none of them are healthy but that was not your goal :)) Have you ever made bacon crack?? If not google it. I need to add it to the blog someday. Thanks for bringing to Fiesta Friday #72 and Happy FF! :))

These are some really awesome looking biscuits. I may need to put sausage gravy over them with lots of fatty sausage and a fried egg to give my cardiologist that summer home he has been eying. What I meant to say was, good job, recipe looks amazing!

another drool-worthy recipe! i love trying to do remakes at home of my fave restaurant dishes…some are wins…others…not so much!! will have to try these biscuits, love the ruby tuesday’s ones!! and i mean, anything with bacon is a-ok in my book 🙂 pinning!

Thank you Aunt Sandie!! Your Grandpa taught you well 🙂 I hope you love these!

Hello There!

I'm Amanda... a wife, mother of two rambunctious kiddos, photography nerd, and bacon lover! I believe that gourmet meals should be something we can ALL enjoy. Now that you're here, stay a bit, browse a few recipes, and let's get cookin'!